Saturday 1.10

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RaleighRiverkeeper Film FestivalMeymandi Theatre at the Murphey School Auditorium—From its headwaters in Wake County to its outlet 250 miles downriver in New Bern, the Neuse River is home to wildlife that must battle such ecological enemies as PCB contamination, stormwater runoff and the Pfiesteria caused by the waste produced by 2 million hogs in the watershed. The Neuse River Foundation was founded in 1980, and for the past 15 years it has supported the riverkeepers, who keep a watchful eye on the water's quality. This year's Riverkeeper Film Festival, which raises money and awareness with a program of aquatically themed films, travels to venues Down East in the coming weeks after beginning this weekend in the Triangle: Friday, Jan. 9 at Durham Arts Council and repeats this afternoon and evening at Burning Coal's Meymandi Theatre in Raleigh.

This year's program consists of 11 films that will be shown over two or three screening blocks (the exact program varies from venue to venue). A wine and cheese reception is included. Be sure to catch Sand Dancer, a portrait of a New Zealand artist who makes marvelous—and transitory—art on the beach, and Ride of the Mergansers, a short about the first flying experience of a rare breed of ducklings that was seen at Full Frame a few years back.

For more information on times and tickets, visit neuseriver.org. —David Fellerath

CarrboroAustin Lounge LizardsThe ArtsCenter—The Austin Lounge Lizards have been playing tunes inspired by bluegrass and classic country for nearly three decades. But, this five piece, bedecked in Hawaiian shirts, isn't a stickler about playing within the boundaries of any particular genre. Instead, the Lizards tend to bend social boundaries best: The band jabs society with the type of satire that finds a useful scapegoat in "Teenage Immigrant Welfare Mothers on Drugs" or understands that, with all of your faults, "Jesus Loves Me but He Can't Stand You." This is the second night of The ArtsCenter's sixth annual American Roots Series, which began Friday, Jan. 9. Tickets for the 8:30 p.m. show are $17-$19. —Andrew Ritchey

RaleighWaking the CadaverVolume 11 Tavern—The four New Jersey numbskulls of Waking the Cadaver self-identify as playing "slamming gore groove," a description that oversells most every aspect of the band's bleak death-metal brutality: Though Waking the Cadaver has a bassist, the groove—danced around by a drummer who seems to forget when to steam ahead and falls behind during too-frequent distended breakdowns—is mostly non-existent. And the "slamming gore" mostly references the band's lyrical misogyny and phallus flaunting, which is overblown to the point of being hilarious ("Kick in your teeth/ with my cock piece," to cite one of the band's less-offensive, more-charming couplets). Giggling at this hyperbolic, hateful, hookless machismo metal is funnier than whatever's happening at Charlie Goodnight's or on NBC. Raise the stakes by pelting the dudes with dildos. The band headlines this 3 p.m. matinee. —Grayson Currin